The deal between Anil Ambani, the Indian billionaire, and DreamWorks provoked a great deal of debate last week.

Under terms of the deal, which still is being refined, the Indian company, Reliance Big Entertainment of India, would invest half a billion dollars in DreamWorks, then help raise another half billion in revolving credit.

DreamWorks would thus gain its freedom from Paramount (with whom it has thrived financially) and the Indians would instantly become a force in Hollywood.Opinions of the deal among Hollywood's major players this week tended to break down by generation.

To oversimplify, call them Old vs. New:

New: The deal symbolizes the globalization of the industry and the new worldwide opportunities that will spur Hollywood's growth.

Old: Many foreign players have invested big bucks in Hollywood in the past and the ventures never paid off.

New: DreamWorks will get a new infusion of capital and autonomy with aggressive new partners who will help it achieve its original objectives.

Old: DreamWorks experienced its most prosperous period ever under its relationship with Paramount and also contributed its best and brightest marketing and development troops to Paramount (and there they have to stay). DreamWorks also nurtured its best development slate there (which also has to stay).

The bottom line: DreamWorks wants to pursue its dream and rid itself of its corporate angst.

And no one -- new generation or old -- can predict where the new structure will take it.

The "movie god" pays no attention to generational thinking, only to the whims of the marketplace.

The late Roddy McDowall was a good friend of mine, and I remember his accounts of what it was like going to school on the old MGM backlot (it's now Sony).

He'd sit next to teenage "contract players" like Elizabeth Taylor, whose time was too valuable to let them off the lot to go to "normal" schools, and, as Roddy recalled, they were all tarted up to look like young femme fatales.

"The studio wanted the boys to keep looking like boys, but the girls were being groomed to play the love interest," he told me.

I was thinking of Roddy's classmates the other day when I saw photos of Demi Lovato, the 15-year-old Texan being groomed by the Disney marketing machine.

Demi is completing her first solo album, and is deemed a potential successor to 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, whose "Hannah Montana" industry has been responsible for $65.3 million in concert tours and other media happenings.

Stars of Disney's "tween" market are squeaky clean, to be sure, as befits the Disney Channel, but it's hard to look at the sharp-looking Demi, posing in jeans, hat and suspenders, without pondering the complexities of squeaky clean.

Ms. Cyrus ran afoul of the image earlier this year when Vanity Fair published her photo with only a bedsheet covering her torso.

Sometimes, as with Britney Spears, the end product didn't turn out according to what the handlers had in mind.

In other cases, as with Hilary Duff, money disputes severed the corporate ties.

"We can't stockpile this type of talent because of their ages, so we have to find it anew and it has to fit the programs we're doing,"

Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for the Disney Channel Worldwide, told the Journal.

There's a lot a stake.

Ms. Lovato opens in 'Camp Rock' on the Disney Channel, then rotates across the ABC Network and ABC Family Channel, and then she'll join the sold-out summer tour of the Jonas Brothers, another Disney product for the tween trade.

The Jonas boys really look like teens and if they were still in school, probably would worry about asking out either Ms. Lovato or Ms. Cyrus since the girls look a bit like Roddy McDowall's classmates of old.

Roddy, who admired showmanship, would have greatly admired the amazing "build" behind the careers of Miley and Demi. Poor Roddy --

About Me

We believe that the Time is NOW for music talents from our part of the world to be Global Icons, with name/ face recognition; i.e. Celebrity Status and with the utmost in financial growth...and thus our current project, Hollywood's TheArtiste...
Good Content is KING...not just any Content...and bringing attention to that Content and finding distribution is another story altogether....like what Hollywood Studios do, they create the best Content and control the entire downstream commerce...
Our vision & mission at Covenant Artists Management is to create Content with potential for Global Distribution.
One of our concurrent projects is to produce a 13 part Documentary featuring Music Producers of the World;
...featuring QUINCY JONES, undisputedly the GREATEST MUSIC producer of ALL time; George Martin, Roslan Aziz, Trevor Horn, Phil Spector, Hugh Padgham, Stevie Wonder ,Dr.Dre, Pharrel, Prince, and so many more...
About 80 % of recorded music released are Producer driven.
The whole Entertainment industry is either based on a story or a song...
It is going to be educational,entertaining & timeless
DV ( Deo Volente )